


Fear

by UglyJackal



Series: Final Fantasy Shenanigans [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 13:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16018781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/pseuds/UglyJackal
Summary: Jack needed to find Cid.





	Fear

The fight had been long and it had been hard. The Imperial soldiers had been a formidable enemy and he and Cid had split up to fight. Jack didn’t know where Cid had gone after he had bolted out of sight behind some of the crystals. 

Jack exhausted himself as he fought against the soldiers, sweat and blood pouring into his eyes. His nerve ends were frying, meteors exploding in his bloodstream, stars being born and dying in his tendons. Saturn and Mars rotated around his lungs, compressing and squashing, dragging his breath out in ragged gasps that tried to cling to his teeth like a lifeline. Blood flowed like a landslide, bone being caught in its path. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t-

He heard a wet thud as the final soldier collapsed as his heart ceased to beat. 

Jack fell to his knees, dropping his wand and keeping his head off of the floor by bracing his hands on the rock. He forced his breath in and out, past the bile in his throat, past his teeth, into the blood-thick atmosphere around him. 

A shout - a curdled cry from a slit throat - made Jack’s ears prick up and he raised his weary head. He stumbled to his feet, wiped the blood from his eyes, picked up his wand. Cid. He had to find Cid. 

He ripped off his stupid fucking hat - two eyes were better than one, who had the bright idea to design that? He started to stumble in the direction of the shout, putting his shattered-glass feet to some use. The rock hurt, pressing acidic against his muscles, but he couldn’t think about that. He needed to find Cid. He needed to make sure he hadn’t lost yet another loved one. 

‘Cid!’ he called, voice cracking like an earthquake. He almost tripped over a body on the floor. ‘Good start,’ he whispered. 

He stumbled on in the same direction. If he believed in such things, he would have prayed that Cid was fine. But as he didn’t believe, he hoped, deep down in his heart, deep down in the pits of the universe. He leaned against a tree and looked for any signs of Cid, of that white hair, of those blue goggles.  _ Anything _ . 

Then suddenly.  _ There _ . A flash of white hair. Jack ran towards it. ‘Cid!’ he shouted, thankful, so thankful that he had finally found him. 

Cid was tense, that much was clear from his body language. Every nerve was on fire, strained, as terse as guitar string. His fists were clenched, his chest heaving. When the sound of his name hit his ears, he turned around so fast that the bones in his neck cracked audibly. He saw the miqo'te, saw the blue tail whipping in the gentle breeze, saw the wand gripped in one hand and hat in the other. 

And he raised his gun to aim between Jack’s worried eyes.

Jack’s face slacked. His mouth lowered in a drawl and he crossed his arms. ‘If you wack me with that fucking gun, I swear to the Twelve, Cid,’ he said, voice almost a growl. 

Cid seemed to come back to himself, the bloodlust in his eyes lifted and it was replaced with terror and concern. ‘By the Fury… Jack!’ he cried.

His gun was left discarded on the grass as he bolted forward. He steadied himself by bracing his hands on Jack’s shoulders. He looked him over, placing tentative fingertips on the large cut on his forehead, grimacing at the blood that stained his skin like a blooming flower. ‘Are you alright?’ he asked, ‘have you broken anything? Organ damage? Dislocation?’ The questions came heavy and they came fast. Faster than any bullet. There were tears in his eyes and panic in his voice. 

Jack rolled his eyes and pulled Cid into him, wrapping his arms around the other’s broad shoulders. Cid tensed and then in the next moment, he relaxed, sagged against the rock that was Jack. His arms grabbed around the miqo'te’s waist, hands gripped at the robes, nose nuzzled into the point where neck met shoulder.

The tears that had been a threat in Cid’s eyes suddenly spilled over and tumbled down his face, falling onto Jack’s shoulders. Jack clutched Cid harder, as though he was trying to squeeze the fear and the sadness out of him, and pressed gentle lips to his temple. 

And there they stood, in the wilderness of Mor Dhona, with a gun discarded in the dirt, and with several corpses surrounding them. 


End file.
